Newell suggests that the company will create its own carefully managed PC ecosystem that's distinct from the one offered by other hardware partners — a possibility that our own Sean Hollister exposed after looking at the company's comments and actions in recent years, including its aversion to Windows 8, its recent embrace of Linux, and its existing push into the living room with Big Picture Mode. Newell tells Kotaku that "our hardware will be a very controlled environment," and that some people will want a "turnkey" solution for their living room.

Honestly I believe Windows 8 is just a PR scape goat to help Linux adoption so they can build their console.

I completely agree, although as a full time Linux user who only boots Windows to game I'm really happy to see Steam adopting Linux.
I can see this being successful as they can potentially provide an easy to use gaming platform with all of the benefits of a full featured OS.